1. Technical Field
This invention relates to vehicle article carriers, and more particularly to a vehicle article carrier having at least one cross bar, where the cross bar includes a pair of jaw members which may be clamped to a side rail of the vehicle article carrier, and which further significantly eases assembly of the cross bar to the side rails of the vehicle article carrier.
2. Discussion
Vehicle article carriers are used in a wide variety of applications to support various articles above an outer body surface of the vehicle. Typically, such vehicle article carriers include at least one cross bar, and more typically a pair of cross bars, which are secured to a pair of parallel disposed slats or side rails. The slats or side rails are secured to the outer body surface so as to extend longitudinally along the outer body surface.
Many vehicle article carrier systems incorporate some form of bracket assembly at each end of the cross bar which allows the cross bar to be adjustably positioned along the slats or side rails. Often these bracket assemblies are fairly complex in construction and often are not able to be quickly assembled to the side rails or slats when the vehicle article carrier system is being installed on a vehicle either at a factory, at a dealership, or even by an end user.
Accordingly, it is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a vehicle article carrier incorporating at least one cross bar, where the cross bar includes a pair of bracket assemblies which can be quickly and easily attached to a pair of side rails of the vehicle article carrier.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a vehicle article carrier which incorporates a cross bar having a pair of bracket assemblies, where each bracket assembly includes a fixed jaw and a movable jaw, and where the movable jaw may be pre-positioned prior to the cross bar being installed on a pair of side rails of the vehicle article carrier, to thereby enable the cross bar to be more quickly installed on the side rails.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle article carrier incorporating at least one side rail, where the side rail includes a pair of bracket assemblies which are capable of being quickly and easily clamped to a pair of side rails to enable the cross bar to be easily repositioned along the side rails if needed.